LOCAL SUPPLIERS PROCUREMENT POLICY

August 2010 Table of Contents

1 Introduction........................................................................................................... 3 2 Corporate Vision and Strategic Priorities ......................................................... 4 3 Objectives of the Policy .................................................................................... 4 4 The Policy........................................................................................................... 4 5 Procurement Rules and Best Practice .............................................................. 6 6 Conclusion......................................................................................................... 9 APPENDIX 1 Glossary............................................................................................ 10 APPENDIX 2 Links to Other Policies and Strategies........................................... 12 APPENDIX 3 External Organisations................................................................. 13 1 Introduction

1.1 The Procurement function is fundamental to the Council fulfilling its obligations and its long-term plans. As these future plans are essentially strategic, the Procurement function must therefore act and advise at a strategic level.

The Council recognizes the importance of supporting local suppliers and the many advantages of purchasing works, goods and services in ways that minimize environmental impact, make best use of local produce and labour, support and maximize local employment and training initiatives, and encourage economic development.

At the same time, the Council has a duty to ensure that public money is spent both responsibly and in a manner that is fair, honest, transparent and legal and does not discriminate in any way.

One of the key roles of Procurement is to balance these interests to best effect in developing and stimulating a varied and competitive market place.

The aims of this policy are in line with the Council’s corporate vision and strategic priorities, as embodied within various strategies and policies, particularly those relating to:

- the IDEA Equality Framework and its predecessor, the Equality Standard;

- sustainability;

- the NBC Sustainable Communities Strategy;

- best practice in procurement;

- for a more detailed list, please refer to Appendix 2.

The intent is to ensure that works, goods and services purchased are fit for purpose whilst seeking to provide benefits for the wider community and delivering high quality public services.

1.2 ‘Procurement’ operates at several levels. Strategic Procurement embraces decisions as to how major Council services are provided and structured for effective and efficient delivery, whilst at an operational level the commissioning of, and contracting for, individual supplies of goods, services and works nevertheless collectively also reflects major expenditure. 1.3 Best Procurement Practice will:

- Generate the most advantageous balance of quality, time and cost;
- Ensure that no organisation (e.g., SMEs or voluntary groups) is precluded from contracting with the Council due to onerous internal processes;
- Give due and legally compliant consideration within tender processes to the needs of the local supplier community, and seek to minimize barriers;
- Encourage the participation of high quality tenderers from all sections of the community to the benefit of the Council;
- Encourage the incorporation of community benefits within tender processes, where this is relevant and legal;
- Comply with the Council’s regulatory framework and all applicable legislation;
- Be transparent and accountable.

2 Corporate Vision and Strategic Priorities

2.1 The Council acknowledges the importance of partnerships and shared services in delivering Best Value – partnerships with the private and voluntary sectors, or with other public bodies and central government.

For this reason, the Council is a key partner within the Northamptonshire Area Procurement Service (‘NAPS’), working alongside a number of other district authorities within a formal arrangement and developing strong working relationships with other local public sector organizations such as the County Council and the Police.

3 Objectives of the Policy

3.1 To obtain maximum economy, efficiency and effectiveness to the Council through the planned and informed management of the Procurement and Supply Chains for materials, works and other facilities and services provided for the Council and the entire community, whilst taking account of the Council’s wider environmental, social and economic responsibilities towards its local population and the community in general.

4 The Policy

4.1 The Council commits itself to encourage local suppliers to take advantage of procurement opportunities by:

- engaging with key community organisations;
- monitoring, and not detrimentally impacting upon, its proportion of works, goods and services spend with SME organisations; • providing detailed information and guidance to local organisations via its website and through printed materials;

• encouraging the strategic development of the local economy through economic development and regeneration initiatives, as well as best procurement practice;

• publishing all low value tender opportunities on the Source Northamptonshire web portal(^1), regardless of any other public notice placed for that opportunity;

• use contracts or include requirements which encourage and promote job creation in the local community

• keeping abreast of current good practice in procurement as it relates to these issues.

4.2 The Council cannot give preference to local suppliers, as there are legislative constraints(^2) and such a policy would be incompatible with Best Value. Nor can the Council incorporate community benefits where these are not relevant to a proposed contract.

The Council recognises that there can be barriers limiting or restricting the ability of smaller suppliers to compete for Council business(^3). The Council will seek to reduce the impact of such barriers, where it can do so legally, without discrimination, and without placing unacceptable levels of risk on the Council.

For example, the council should simply ascertain a contractors willingness to improve their insurance cover to a specified limit, should they win the contract, rather than request a specific level of cover at pre-qualification stage.

In summary, the Council can facilitate, inform, encourage and act as a conduit to external organisations providing specialist support and expertise, but it cannot decide that a contract must be awarded to a local supplier and it can only specify community benefits in a proposed contract where these are relevant.

4.3 The Council will participate in, and contribute to, the East Midlands Public Procurement Opportunities Plan published by the East Midlands Development Agency (EMDA) through working closely with the East Midlands Improvement and Efficiency Partnership (EMIEP) who represent local authorities on the East Midlands Procurement Forum.

4.4 The Council will seek to ensure greater awareness of procedures and opportunities generally. It will seek to work collaboratively with external organisations, such as Northamptonshire Enterprise(^4) and Business Link(^5), to achieve this and to support initiatives such as ‘Meet the Buyer’ events.

4.5 The Council will seek to ensure greater awareness amongst its officers and

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(^1) Source Northamptonshire Web Portal (^2) EU and UK legislation on competition and public procurement (^3) Eg insurance limits; funding streams; cash flow; financial history; joint and several liability within partnerships (^4) Northamptonshire Enterprise (^5) Business Link East Midlands Members of current Best Procurement Practice, using various approaches (such as Open Days, and its Good Practice Summary) to achieve this.

4.6 The Council will seek to ensure that SMEs and voluntary/community groups are not unfairly disadvantaged through its procurement and purchasing policies and procedures, and that the benefit to the whole local economy is maximised within the principles of Best Value and relevant legislation.

4.7 The Council will seek to increase, by at least 25%, the level of local advertising of tender opportunities, principally via the Source Northamptonshire web portal, and to increase the use of such local advertising for higher-value opportunities (in excess of £20,000).

4.8 The Council will seek to increase the level of participation of local firms and SMEs by inviting at least one SME and/or at least one local firm to apply or provide a quotation for work, when publishing tender notices or requesting quotations for lower value spend.

4.9 The Council will seek to avoid any detrimental impact upon the proportion of SMEs within its 100 highest spend suppliers, taking 2008/09 as a baseline.

4.10 Equality Impact Assessments will generally be undertaken by NAPS on strategic issues and by the Council on operational issues, as appropriate, and will be made available to the general public via the Council’s website.

4.11 The Council will periodically review its methods of operation with a view to ensuring a more community oriented, and environmentally aware, approach to procurement decisions.

4.12 All future specifications for works, goods or services that are influenced by procurement will progressively require suppliers to maintain and comply with the Council’s standards and requirements in relation to Equality and Diversity, and Community Benefits generally, including requirements which encourage and promote job creation in the local community.

5 Procurement Rules and Best Practice

The following rules and best practice shall apply:

5.1 The framework of rules for procurement will be those determined by EU and UK law, the Council’s Contract Procedure Rules and those set out within any presented Procurement Strategy, Policy or Code of Practice (in that order of precedence).

5.2 In dealing with all suppliers, the Council will ensure that there is an equal opportunity, for all who meet the stated criteria, to participate in tendering for any Council requirements. Whenever requested, unsuccessful applicants will be provided with the reasons why, and unsuccessful tenderers will receive feedback.

5.3 In appointing suppliers, the Council will appraise offers received on the basis of whole life costing and will seek an appropriate balance between cost and quality in any evaluation having regard to the Most Economically Advantageous Tender 5.4 In any procurement activity the Council will consider the impact upon the market of particular ways of packaging and presenting requirements so that, as far as is consistent with the needs of users, these are as attractive as possible, are environmentally friendly, meet Health & Safety requirements etc. as detailed within pre-qualification questionnaires and will purchase Fairtrade goods where this option is available and can be afforded.

5.5 Procurement will develop a programme of research on best practice within Procurement, to produce advice for purchasers on the ways that they can:

- in accordance with the Council’s Sustainable Purchasing Guide, promote sustainability factors and other community benefits into buying decisions (where these are both relevant and legal) e.g. review our purchase of timber & timber products, non-recycled paper, pesticides, etc;

- assist colleagues in critically appraising alternatives to existing provision (such as creative graphic design, open source(^6) software, specialist works suppliers), which would increase the diversity of the relevant supplier base, as these goods and services are more likely to be offered by smaller and/or local suppliers;

- encourage colleagues to give due consideration to ‘niche’ specialist suppliers, which would also increase the diversity of the relevant supplier base, as well as ‘generalist’ companies providing a wide range of goods or services;

- encourage colleagues not to specify brands (such as ‘Ford Transit’ vans) or technical features (such as computer hardware containing Intel microprocessor chips) where this is not a material aspect of the proposed contract(^7);

- consider the possibility of incorporating new employment, apprenticeships or training opportunities as part of the specification;

- seek to minimise barriers to the participation of SMEs and local suppliers in seeking to do business with the Council and with its partner authorities;

- seek to ensure that suppliers are compliant with all current legislation on equalities and diversity, and encourage them to achieve this;

- make use of model contract clauses to ensure compliance with legislation and best practice;

- use environmental labelling schemes wherever feasible;

- ensure specifications comply with the Council’s Sustainable Procurement policy and Sustainable Communities Strategy, where appropriate;

- comply with local, national and EU legislative and regulatory requirements;

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(^6) see, for example, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_free_and_open_source_software_packages](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_free_and_open_source_software_packages)

(^7) [http://www.ogc.gov.uk/documents/NonDiscriminationInTechnicalSpecifications.pdf](http://www.ogc.gov.uk/documents/NonDiscriminationInTechnicalSpecifications.pdf) • promote community awareness among our suppliers, this will inform future policy and build on current guidance;

• encourage the publication of forward procurement plans to enable potential suppliers to plan for responding to contract opportunities 6 Conclusion

6.1 This Policy seeks to outline the Council’s commitment to fairness and transparency in working with local suppliers, by outlining the key principles of how the Council procures works, goods and services.

Recognising that many of these companies will be SMEs and social enterprises, and that many such suppliers will be representative of a diverse range of communities, it also outlines the measures that the Council will adopt to ensure that they are not placed at a disadvantage when bidding for Council contracts.

There still, however, remains a requirement to demonstrate Best Value and to be mindful of the constraints of the EU Procurement Rules. The policy and legislative framework that regulates public procurement is complex and detailed, and cannot be disregarded or altered.

However, in developing this policy, the Council seeks to ensure

- that all companies who wish to become suppliers to the Council can understand the basis on which decisions are taken;
- that barriers to the participation of smaller companies can be minimised, without according them preferential treatment; and
- that all prospective suppliers, regardless of size, location or other circumstances, would also benefit from such measures.

It is the Council’s belief that this approach will benefit us all.

Head of Procurement Northampton Borough Council/Northamptonshire Area Procurement Service

August 2010

## APPENDIX 1 Glossary

| **Community Benefits** | Elements within a proposed contract which provide benefits to the wider community, and not just the Council or its suppliers. These can be broadly categorised into one of the following areas of benefit:

- ensuring equalities and diversity are taken into account;
- promoting measures which support or stimulate the local economy;
- promoting social benefits such as employment or training opportunities;
- promoting measures which protect the environment.\
  Examples might be the provision of training schemes or apprenticeships, or increased use of recycled materials. Specification of such benefits can only be legally done where the benefit would be relevant to the contract. | | **Fairtrade** | ‘Fair Trade is an organized social movement and market-based approach that aims to help producers in developing countries obtain better trading conditions and promote sustainability. The movement advocates the payment of a higher price to producers as well as social and environmental standards.’ (from Wikipedia)\
  It is Council policy to promote the use of Fairtrade products and this is included in the Sustainable Purchasing Guide. However, please note that Fairtrade products can only legally be specified where this would be relevant to the contract, which is almost never the case in practice. | | **Local Suppliers** | Suppliers whose primary base
- lies within the County of Northamptonshire;
- lies within 50 miles of Northampton; or
- has a postcode beginning with ‘NN’. | | **Locally Sourced Goods** | For the purposes of this Policy, these are defined as goods procured from Local Suppliers (qv). | | **Most Economically Advantageous Tender (MEAT)** | The tender which will bring the greatest benefit to the Council taking into account a variety of factors, principally around quality and price | | **SME** | see ‘Small and Medium Enterprises’ | | --- | --- | | **Small and Medium Enterprises** | Definitions vary. However, the EU has now started to standardize the concept. Its current definition categorizes companies as follows:
- fewer than 10 employees as ‘micro’;
- those with fewer than 50 employees as ‘small’;
- those with fewer than 250 as ‘medium’;
- those with 250 or more employees as ‘large’.\
  This definition is also used by the Federation of Small Businesses. | | **Social Benefits** | see ‘Community Benefits’ | | **Sustainability** | Elements within a proposed contract which relate to the choice of works, goods or services in ways which minimise harmful impacts, or maximise beneficial impacts, on the environment or the community. Examples might be the specification of organic foodstuffs, or minimising road miles within delivery cycles.\
  Specification of such benefits can only be legally done where the benefit would be relevant to the contract.\
  **Note:** specifications requesting Fairtrade goods do not comply with this requirement. | | **Whole Life Cost** | The cost of ownership of an asset is incurred throughout its whole life and does not all occur at the point of acquisition(^8).\
  Whole life costing allows us to determine if it is cost effective to invest in a more expensive product initially to reduce costs in the long run. |

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(^8) NBC Procurement Code of Practice APPENDIX 2 Links to Other Policies and Strategies

Statement of Procurement Policy Procurement Strategy Procurement Code of Practice Equality in Procurement Checklist Contract Procedure Rules Sustainable Purchasing Guidelines Single Equality Scheme Level 3 Equality Standard/Equality Framework Sustainable Communities Strategy APPENDIX 3 External Organisations

Northamptonshire Enterprise Ltd (NEL) http://www.northamptonshireenterprise.ltd.uk/default.asp

Business Link East Midlands http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/eastmidlands/

East Midlands Improvement and Efficiency Partnership (EMIEP) http://www.eastmidlandsiep.gov.uk

East Midlands Development Agency http://www.emda.org.uk/businesssupport/procurement-plan.asp

Black and Minority Ethnic Sub-Regional Partnership (BME SRP) for Northamptonshire http://www.bmesrp.com/